Nude Events Are Going Mainstream And I Am Super Stoked

nude-beachI try to let my daughter run around naked as often as possible. She seems to enjoy her time the most right before and after her bath, when I strip her down and let her toddle around on the carpet without a diaper. Although I will happily trot around in underwear, I don’t spend nearly as much time naked as I would like (this is even more true now that we’re on a ground-floor apartment, meaning I have to draw the blinds at night, which is weird to get used to).

But given the opportunity, I would absolutely attend a naked event like these two upcoming ones in Portland, Oregon. One is the World Naked Bike Ride on June 8th, and the other is a clothing-optional gallery event at the Portland Art Museum.

From NBC News:

The art museum’s efforts ”are a great step forward for eroding away American prudishness,” said Ted Buehler, a Portland rooming-house owner and operator. Buehler has ridden in the city’s World Naked Bike Ride events for the past six years and, as long as it involved being able to ride his bicycle naked, said he’d be interested in taking a nude vacation, or what the AANR has dubbed (and trademarked) as a ”nakation.”

 

So, it seems, would a growing number of other travelers. In a 2009 TripAdvisor survey, 31% of respondents said they were interested in visiting a nude beach. In a similar survey done in 2010, 48% of the respondents said vacationing at a nude beach would be something they’d try, according to a TripAdvisor spokesperson.

I think there must be something about herd mentality that makes it easier to be naked at events like these, as opposed to just walking around naked by yourself. I’m pretty confident that all of my insecurities would melt away if I were to bare it all around other naked people.

I feel like it would be a good lesson in body acceptance for my child, too, if she could see how bodies come in so many shapes and sizes. Clothing, like airbrushing, has a way of skewing reality. When I’m clothed, I look pretty much the same now as I did pre-baby. But baring it all would reveal the faded “warrior stripes” on my belly and the changed shape of my abdomen — and I’m sure many other people who appear pretty toned would also be sporting some surprise flab, too. Which is wonderful!

If I did attend one of these nude events with my family, however, I might be uncomfortable with my daughter’s nudity around a bunch of strangers. It seems socially acceptable at the time to let my toddler run around naked in front of people, but what would be the protocol for if she was a little older? On the World Naked Bike Ride website, it states that children do attend these events — and photos aren’t allowed. But still, I’m just not sure. I wouldn’t want to leave her behind and lead her to believe her own nakedness is shameful, but I also wouldn’t want her to participate without understanding the social stigma of nudity.

(photo: Konstantin Ivlev / Shutterstock)

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